Senate impeaches MSA president
Published April 29, 2004
The Missouri Students Association Senate impeached MSA President Brian Laoruangroch Tuesday night after 33 senators signed a petition to impeach him and to hold a trial to decide if he should be removed from office.
Rumors about a possible impeachment have circulated for months, but no formal action was taken until Monday when Senate Speaker Damon Ferlazzo and Senator Danny French filed a resolution to censure Laoruangroch with the possibility to amend the bill to impeach him.
Several committees passed the resolution to censure Laoruangroch, but the signed petition is a separate piece of legislation. According to the censure resolution, Laoruangroch "engaged in inappropriate activities at official functions of the university and association which were disrespectful, unfortunate, shameful and reckless." The resolution also said Laoruangroch has not effectively represented the undergraduate student body.
Ferlazzo said he didn't think about taking action against Laoruangroch until he witnessed Laoruangroch's behavior at the Geyer Awards dinner on April 21. Ferlazzo said Laoruangroch, who is 20-years-old, was intoxicated in front of state legislators, members of the Alumni Association and UM system administrators. Ferlazzo said when he and a few other MSA members confronted Laoruangroch about his behavior, Laoruangroch bragged about drinking at nine of the past 10 university events.
"That comment pushed it all over the edge," Ferlazzo said.
Laoruangroch said he was shocked at the charges. Although he admitted to drinking, he said he did not think drinking prevented him from doing his job.
"I made a mistake there," he said. "I felt like people did not actually care that I was drinking. I don't think it's a matter of the president drinking. It was a matter of me being underage. Behavior-wise, I wasn't doing anything inappropriate."
Although the original resolution called for a censure, Ferlazzo said impeachment was the most appropriate action to take.
"If we don't go all the way with this, we're showing a lack of resolve," he said. "If we decide only to censure him, it says that we think he's a bad representative of the student body but we're still keeping him on as that representative."
The Senate will discuss the impeachment in a trial at their final full Senate meeting Wednesday. In order to remove Laoruangroch from office, three-fourths of the senators present would have to vote to remove him.
This is the first time an MSA president has been impeached.